Review: “The Raven Cycle” by Maggie Stiefvater.

Títle: Saga “The Raven Cycle”

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Editorial: Scholastic Press

PVP (per book): 15€ aprox (hardcover) / 5€ aprox (e-book)

Mark: 9.5/10

FIRST BOOK ABSTRACT

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them--until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

PERSONAL VALORATION

Justification

Today I have reviewed one of the best young-adult literature sagas that I have read: "The Raven Cycle". It is a saga composed of four books - "The Raven Boys (# 1)", "The Dream Thieves (# 2)", "Blue Lily, Lily Blue (# 3) and" The Raven King (# 4) " - and a set of short stories - "300 Fox Way Holiday Piece (# 0.3)", "A Minor Raven Boys Holiday Drabble (# 0.4)" and "Opal" (# 4.5) - belonging to the genre of contemporary young-adult literature and dealing with themes of magic and fantasy (Welsh kings, ley lines, ghosts, spiritualism, dreams ...), suspense, personal relationships (friendship and romance) ... Since the saga began in 2012 it has been nominated and has won several literary and reader awards.

Plot

The plot of this saga revolves around Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah as they try to find the Welsh king Glendower, whose legend says he is asleep somewhere in the ley lines (alignments of different places of geographic and historical interest that supposedly have great powers). The story begins in "The Raven Boys (# 1)" with the introduction of Blue, the daughter of a medium, who lives together with her in a house full of psychic women. Despite not having powers Blue joins her half-aunt Neeve to a ghost watch on St. Mark's night where Neeve sees the spirits of the people in Henrietta, Virginia, who will die next year. Blue sees the spirit of a boy named Gansey and Neeve tells her that she will love him or kill him. Later, Blue meets Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah, a group of students from the Aglionby Academy (whose badge is a raven) while working in a restaurant and soon becomes involved in the search for Glendower, the raven king. A path in which reality and fantasy are interspersed, where magic and legends are present and in which everyone has a relevant role.

Characters

Throughout the sagas there are several relevant characters, but especially the five boys who make up the main group stand out:

Blue Sargent: is the daughter of a madium named Maura, and lives with her and other psychic women at her home, 300 Fox Way. Despite not having psychic abilities of their own, Blue can amplify the energy of other seers and supernatural beings. In addition, she is "cursed": if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. She works in a restaurant called Nino's and wants to travel desperately around the world and help others.

She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.

Richard "Dick" Campbell Gansey III: Gansey for his friends, is a student of Aglionby who tirelessly searches for the Welsh king Glendower because he believes he saved his life seven years before. His allergy to bee stings made him die in the ley line and he heard a voice: "You will live thanks to Glendower, someone else in the ley line is dying when he should not, and then you will live when you should not."

As always, there was an all-American war hero look to him, coded in his tousled brown hair, his summer-narrowed hazel eyes, the straight nose that ancient Anglo-Saxons had graciously passed on to him. Everything about him suggested valor and power and a firm handshake.

Adam Parrish: is a student with partial scholarship in Aglionby. Unlike Gansey who lives a very comfortable economic situation and is from Virginia, Adam is from the village of Henrietta, has three jobs and lives with his mother and abusive father in a trailer.

“Where do you live?”

Adam's mouth was very set. "A place made for leaving”

"That's not really an answer."

"It's not really a place.”

Ronan Lynch: is another student of Aglionby with a gruesome past (his father was brutally murdered at the entrance of his family home, the Grans, and neither he nor his brothers can return there or visit his mother who is mysteriously in a coma) that makes him be dangerous, given to fights and not filter of his words. He lives together with Gansey and Noah in Monmouth Manufactures.

And here was Ronan, like a heart attack that never stopped.

Noah: is another student of the academy that lives in Noah is very quiet and introverted. Often, he is shy and nervous, in front of people, and cowardly when faced with danger.

Noah had wandered down the aisle, but now he gleefully returned with a snow globe. He stood behind Ronan until he pushed off the shelf to admire the atrocity.

"Glitter," whispered Noah reverentially, giving it a shake.

They are all very well-built characters: they have real and appropriate passions, interests, secrets and concerns. They are characters that show diversity of social classes, sexual orientation, socio-economic situation, possibilities, ideology ...

On the other hand, other endearing secondary characters appear in the book: Maura (Blue's mother), all the women of the 300 Fox Way, the Gray Man, Joseph Kavinsky, Henry Cheng, the Greenmantle marriage...

Atmosphere

The saga of books takes place in the current and contemporary world, specifically is located in a fictional town of Henrietta, Virginia, which according to the author herself would be located near West Virginia. It is a world in which Welsh magic, fantasy and mythology are intermingled with high school concerns and social and class differences. It's not a traditional adventure story, it's not a normal contemporary story and it's not a love story either (in fact, I'd say it's a friendship story). It is a set of all that and more.

Writing style

Stiefvater perfectly dominates the narrative of this story. The descriptions of the places (whether worldly or fantastic) and the dialogues (either those of the teenagers or those of the bullies) are intertwined perfectly and remind us of who the protagonists are: a group of five disparate American teenagers. Her words convey authenticity and mystery, reality and fiction. A narrative that intermingles the ordinary of everyday life and the extraordinariness of Welsh mythology with an agile and dynamic writing rhythm.

GENERAL COMMENT

The saga of "The Raven Cycle" is a story of five American teenagers who embark on a romantic adventure immersed in Welsh mythology and deep magic and taking place in a small town in Virginia called Henrietta. An atypical and complete narrative, with great representation in all its characters and a very plausible construction. A saga that is completely worthwhile and that will not disappoint readers.

-R.